My First Post

Welcome to my blog! My name is Dora Arsenault. I live in Warwick, RI, on the shores of beautiful Greenwich Bay with my husband and 3 extremely spoiled cats. After 28 years as a school-based speech pathologist, I retired 2 years ago with the intention of developing my artistic side and taking it as far as it will go.My medium of choice is polymer clay, and my specialty is canework.What really excites me are color and pattern, especially radial, repetitive and interlocking patterns.To me, constructing a cane is the 3-D equivalent of doodling!Although I make up my designs as I go along, I get much inspiration from quilt patterns, Celtic knotwork, mandalas, and ethnic fabrics, to name a few.I love sharing my passion for canework with others, and hope to teach classes, develop on-line tutorials, and perhaps publish how-to articles.This is my first venture into blogging, and to say that the process is intimidating is an understatement! When I look through the ‘how-tos’ of blogging, or read about others’ blogging challenges, I want to turn and run.But if I wait until I feel I can do it ‘just right’, I’ll never do it, so here goes….Expect to see changes as I stumble along into uncharted territory !

Thanks so much to every one of you for all your encouragement and good wishes ! I feel like I’m in a room with good friends..I will be adding blogs to my blogroll in the next day or two…I’m still getting used to the ‘mechanics’ of using WordPress. I would eventually like to customize this blog, once I learn CSS..It’s like learning a foreign language! I also plan to link my Flicka photos. Whew, too much to learn ! Gotta take it one step at a time…

Hi Dora!
I read blogs everyday. I have them in Google Reader so they just pop up when someone has posted and today….there was your leaf cane in art and tea!!! I’m so happy you’ll be blogging. I love reading them first thing in the morning and when I take a break in the afternoon. It’s so nice to see what other pc people are doing.
It looks to me like you’re doing just fine. I’ve been thinking of joining Etsy and can’t imagine how you do a banner so you’re wayyyy ahead of me!
Susan (pcbysusan)

welcome to the world of blogging. Glad you have joined the crowd. My thoughts on the “how to blog” are to just write about whats happening, be it writing in images or words or a combination of both. Thats me…never one to follow the roolz!!

Thanks so much for dropping in, Kathi, Frivolitea, and Kylee ! I took a look at your blogs and they are great ! I’m just starting out, and there’s a lot to learn. Besides building this blog, I’m eager to get back to serious claying…I’ve been in a rather prolonged creative ‘dry spell’ of late. This will no doubt be the subject of a future post !

Thanks, Liz ! I do indeed plan to use a lot of pictures, as I am very much a visual person…With a birthday coming up, I’m hoping to get a new camera and make an effort to improve my photography skills.